This semester, I am participating in a short-term, faculty-led study abroad program in Cape Town, South Africa. Essentially, I am spending the spring semester taking a course at UC, but at the end of the semester, our class will spend approximately two weeks in-country in South Africa. So far, I am thoroughly enjoying the class. It's a nontraditional study abroad program in that we are working with a nonprofit program that assists entrepreneurs in Cape Town's Khayelitsha Township in growing their businesses and earning a stable income. 

        In and outside of class, we students are working in teams of five, and each team is paired with a South African entrepreneur who is advancing through the nonprofit's education program. Together, we are developing a strong business model, creating marketing and branding material, and working towards operational excellence. However, our teams continue to face a myriad of unique challenges along the way. Our entrepreneurs live in communities experiencing extreme poverty, violent crime, widespread inaccessibility to reliable transportation, and much more. Our entrepreneurs also have differing cultural backgrounds, speak English as a second language, and are seven hours ahead of our team members in Cincinnati. All of these factors and nuanced forces create a situation that requires thoughtful solutions and a high degree of care.

        Throughout this process, I am serving as my team's Team Lead and also our Communications Coordinator. In these roles, I facilitate all communication between Linda, our entrepreneur in South Africa, and our student team in Cincinnati. Additionally, I set and amend strategic plans, coordinate virtual team meetings, and collaborate with my teammates often to generate new marketing and branding material for Linda's catering kitchen. In this, I have already had many experiences where my values, identities, and top character strengths have influenced my approach. For example, my values for learning, love, and helping others continue to aid me greatly in learning about the complexities of Linda's situation and applying my love of problem-solving to deliver a positive result for her and the community she serves.

        My identities as a white, socioeconomically advantaged, American-born, native English-speaking male have also influenced the way I've navigated my responsibilities. Even though I seek diversity and new perspectives in my daily life, my role has influenced me to majorly expand my worldview to be the best team member possible. To do this, I have fostered a strong personal connection with Linda, done extensive research on South Africa's history and the systemic barriers to success that still plague the country, and learned how to communicate effectively in the face of widely differing cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. My top character strengths of curiosity, perspective, and creativity have influenced me similarly. Respectively, they have influenced me to seek, interpret, and apply new information incredibly quickly, exercise my natural empathetic tendencies to fuel my imagination and broaden my horizons, and utilize my inherently creative thought process to streamline solutions.

        Initially, I felt overwhelmed when faced with these challenges, and my first instinct was to problem-solve in my typical fashion. When that proved to be ineffective in intricate situations, though, it became clear to me that I needed to analyze them deeper and alter facets of my approach to become more efficient. I was then much quicker to recognize that I was fully equipped to thrive as Team Lead, and the initial stress melted away as I played to the advantages of my values, identities, character strengths, and leadership skills. In the future, I expect to use what I've learned to anticipate other situations that may require me to see the bigger picture and shift my perspective to find success.